Dressed in insulated yellow suits, the firefighters tested the thick ice as they walked cautiously across Siena Reservoir in Anthem. Near the shore, the ice was nearly 8 inches thick. Yet patches of the lake were quickly growing dark and slushy — a sign the ice sheet was far from stable.

“This is the most dangerous time right now, when the ice is rotting and getting thinner,” said Mike Dufford, an engineer with North Metro Fire Rescue District.

Members of North Metro Fire Rescue used the Broomfield lake Thursday to practice their ice rescue training. The training is especially important in winter months, when unpredictable Colorado temperatures freeze and thaw lakes and ponds.

All of North Metro's firefighters hone their training each year by using waterproof suits, ropes, inflatable boats and other gear to practice quickly pulling people from icy waters.

While the team has not had to make any water-related rescues yet this season, their technical gear and cautious movements send a message that is as clear as ever: Don't walk on frozen pond or lakes.

“We're getting lots of calls about people walking on the ice, and although we haven't had to save anyone from the water this season, it's still dangerous,” said North Metro spokeswoman Stacey Mulligan as she watched firefighters suit up on the edge of the lake.

Mulligan said people should avoid walking on frozen ponds and lakes, because a fall through the ice can turn serious in a blink of an eye. North Metro commonly gets calls to respond to small ponds or bodies of water in housing developments, where pets and people sometimes tread.

The firefighters can withstand the water's cold temperatures, because of their buoyant, waterproof suits, but a jogger or dog walker would not fare so well, she said.

On Thursday, the sun shone on Anthem Lake and temperatures hung in the 50s. Yet even with the balmy weather, the water in the lake was just above freezing, said firefighter John Brereton.

“Imagine how that would be on a 20-degree day,” he said. “We can arrive (at a rescue situation) pretty fast, but if you're in the water in your street clothes, it's pretty bad.”

The most common ice-related calls to North Metro involve dogs, that run onto the ice without noticing how unstable it is. Rescuers often wear a catcher's mask when helping dogs out of the water to avoid bites to the face.

Rescuing pets is serious enough work for ice rescue teams, but an even bigger problem is when pet owners rush onto the ice to save their pets. In the panicked moment, they do not realize the ice likely will not hold their weight, Dufford said.

Part of the firefighters' training involves quickly rescuing humans or animals from icy water, but also involves approaching victims strategically so firefighters don't get dragged down in the water.

Using a combination of ropes, carabiners and boogie board-shaped flotation devices, firefighters try to approach a victim from behind, then clip the victim into a rope to haul them out of the water. A flotation device can give the victim something to hold onto “that isn't another person,” Dufford said.

From the edge of the lake, another group of firefighters hauls a rescuer and victim to safety by using ropes to slide them across patches of ice.

“The fewer people on the ice, the better,” Mulligan said.

For situations with larger stretches of water, rescuers can use a specially designed raft the shape and color of a banana. The raft design allows firefighters to paddle out and grab victims from multiple angles.

Brereton, a former river guide, said his experiences in river rafts have helped him with ice rescue training.

“I feel that we always get good training, but being familiar with the ropes, being familiar with pulling someone into a raft — it's something I've done a million times,” he said.

Despite his depth of experience, he and other North Metro rescuers hope people can avoid ice-related emergencies by not walking on the ice.

“Even on a day like today, falling in the water would be a bad situation.”

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story